Palazzetto dello Sport

Built for the 1960 Olympics, the palazzetto is a modest sports stadium in an innovative concrete dome. Designed by Pier Luigi Nervi it hosted boxing among other sports during the Olympic Games. The innovative dome is made of ribbed reinforced concrete. The lower half of the dome has continuous ribbon of window the whole way around the circular stadium, beneath the elegantly ribbed, white-painted concrete ceiling. A wonderful space. Pier Luigi Nervi was educated and practised as a "building engineer" in Italy. After 1932, his aesthetically pleasing designs were used for major projects. This was due to the booming number of construction projects at the time which used concrete and steel in Europe and the architecture aspect took a step back to the potential of engineering. Nervi successfully made reinforced concrete the main structural material of the day. He died in 1979.

Palazzetto dello Sport

Opening hours
The stadium is in use and so not formally open to the public for visits. But you can buy a ticket to a sports-event and enjoy!

How to get there?
The stadium is in the former Olympic park towards the north of Rome, just north of the Stadio Flaminio (also by Pier Luigi Nervi).
Piazza Apolladoro is at the intersection of the Viale Tiziano (running north-south) and Viale P. De Coubertin (running east-west), home of the Parco della Musica.